Don’t eat toads as medicine.A simple lesson, unfortunately hard-learned by one 70-year-old man in Shanghai who was hospitalized after eating three toads which he’d bought and boiled into a soup in hopes that it would help his skin disease.The man, identified as Gao, heard that eating toads could clear toxins from the body and may be able to cure a skin disease he’d suffered with for many years, Shanghai Daily reports, citing the Jiefang Daily.

Gao boiled the toads into a soup and ate them. He started to vomit and feel dizzy about an hour later. He went into shock with his heart rate dropping to as low as 30 beats per minute. After emergency treatment and washing of the stomach, Gao was sent to the intensive care unit of Songjiang District Central Hospital, the report said.

Some parts of toads can be used to make medicines but are also toxic. These parts can damage the human central nervous system and digestive tracts, the report said.

In 2013, a Shanghai woman also learned this the hard way when she cooked up some toad soup to treat her liver disease and later died from its toxins.While some toads might be safe to eat, a doctor cited in the Daily paper said Chinese remedies that involve eating toads to cure diseases or cancer “don’t work”.[Image credit: delgrossodotcom]